Chickens in Snow

With the exception of this fine rooster and one hen, all of our chickens were born on the Fourth of July. They are five months old now, and this is their first experience with snow.

Okay, the rooster is kind of fluffed up and the wind is blowing his feathers the wrong way, but he is a fine rooster, I assure you.


They are reluctant to come out of the chicken house; I would be, too, if I were barefoot. When they do come out they like to hang out under this brush pile. You might be able to spot a couple of red combs in the photo, but there are at least a dozen chickens in there.


See? Here are the two roosters, with a couple of hen butts behind and up the hill from them.

My chickens live in an unheated, uninsulated chicken house. We have plans to build them an unheated, insulated house. They did fine last year in nighttime temps down to -8F. It's sad to think they made it through temperatures like that only to have their ranks decimated in the Great Raccoon Wars of '07. This batch is a lot more skittish, though, so I think their chance of survival is moh bettah than that of their predecessors.